NORTHWEST INDIAN LANGUAGE INSTITUTE - The Northwest Indian Language Institute, a part of the College of Arts and Sciences, received more than $1.7 million in funding from the US Department of Education to establish a resource center aimed at the revitalization of Indigenous languages.

PHILOSOPHY - Barbara Muraca, a philosophy associate professor, participated in United Nations-organized research focused on “relational values” between humans and nature. She hopes to emphasize the importance of viewing humans and nature as connected rather than separate entities. Muraca and a team of academics appear as authors in an article published in the August 2023 issue of Nature.

THEATRE ARTS - The University Theatre kicks off its 2023-24 season with 'The Phantom Tollbooth' on Friday, Nov. 3. The production strives to bring the adventure protagonist Milo experiences in the book to the stage, so the audience is along for the ride every step of the way. “We get to kind of go on the journey with Milo to self-discovery,” said Tricia Rodley, the production's director and a theatre arts senior instructor in the College of Arts and Sciences.

BIOLOGY, CINEMA STUDIES, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, GEOGRAPHY - From animals to adhesives to DJ food stamp, students in First-year Interest Groups follow their fascinations and create community.

COMICS AND CARTOON STUDIES, INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES - Three Indigenous artists whose work deals extensively with environmental questions will take part in the Indigenous Comics Speaker Series over the coming academic year. The series begins with Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, an award-winning visual artist and author, at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11, in the Knight Library Browsing Room.

The 2023-24 academic year began its ascent Tuesday as the second-largest class in school history hit the UO campuses. A total of 5,057 first-year students began their first day of classes; only last year’s class of 5,338 students was larger. The total included a record 38 percent who identify as domestic minority students.

LINGUISTICS - For the last 30 years, Department of Linguistics Professor Spike Gildea has partnered with Native communities in Brazil to document and analyze the Werikyana language, which today is spoken as a first language by only a handful of people.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, FOLKLORE AND PUBLIC CULTURE - After a recent week in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, five UO graduate students have returned ready to use what they learned to help local communities plan for a more sustainable future.

ENGLISH, SOCIOLOGY, SPANISH, THEATRE ARTS - The Distinguished Teaching Awards recognize exceptional teaching that is inclusive, engaged and research-informed. This year’s winners are Jocelyn Hollander, Faith Barter, Alex Zunterstein, Kirby Brown, Robin Hopkins, Tannaz Farsi, Patricia Rodley and Michael Moffitt.

Six faculty members in CAS were among this year’s 2023 Distinguished Teaching Awards. They include Jocelyn Hollander, professor of sociology; Faith Barter, assistant professor in English; Alex Zunterstein, senior instructor in Spanish; Kirby Brown, associate professor of Native American literatures; Robin Hopkins, senior instructor of human physiology; and Tricia Rodley, senior instructor in theatre arts.

PHILOSOPHY, SOCIOLOGY - Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy will have a three-day 40th-anniversary conference at the University of Oregon, which runs from Wednesday, Sept. 6 through Friday, Sept. 9. The conference, titled Hypatia’s Promise: Opening the Archives, Charting Feminist Futures, will look back at the journal’s early days, as well as host panels featuring academics from around the US and Latin America and celebrate the archive at the UO.

Ducks who study together make the dean's list together. More than 4,000 students made the dean's list in the spring 2023 term. To qualify, a student must have earned at least a 3.75 GPA while taking 12 credits or more.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES - In his 2022 book Creating the Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Study, CAS Professor Stephen Shoemaker explores the age of the Qur'an.

COMICS AND CARTOON STUDIES - While presenting at a San Diego Comic-Con International panel, CAS Professor Ben Saunders was awarded the Inkpot Award for his impact on the comic industry.

The UO’s Environment Initiative has awarded seed funding to five new teaching projects to support faculty members who have proposed innovative courses and dynamic classroom experiences. The funding supports both research and curricular projects and focuses the intellectual energy and work of faculty, students and community partners on a just and livable future through transdisciplinary research, teaching and experiential learning.